Warsaw gets its first electric articulated bus made by Solaris

The Municipal Bus Company in Warsaw has just leased an 18-metre-long electric bus – the new Solaris Urbino 18 electric. It is the first vehicle of that kind in the capital and one of the first electric articulated buses in Europe.

“Next year we want to order 130 electric articulated buses including the related infrastructure. The volume of that project will amount to more than PLN 400 m, which is subsidized and co-financed by the European Union with PLN 180 m. In three years diesel buses will have disappeared from the Royal Route (Trakt Królewski), and Krakowskie Przedmieście and Nowy Świat will only be traversed by silent and ecological electric vehicles”, says Renata Kaznowska, Deputy President of the capital city of Warsaw. 

Batteries in articulated „dachshunds“ can be charged either by means of a plug-in connector or via a pantograph. The bus is extraordinarily quiet and does not emit any exhaust fumes. It has been equipped with air-conditioning, an electronic passenger information system, a monitoring system and fire prevention systems. The vehicle is fitted with two e-engines integrated into the drive axle, boasting a power of 120 kW each and high capacity batteries of the Solaris High Energy battery type, which allow for a travel distance of more than 200 kilometres per charge.

“Leasing and testing that vehicle constitutes the preliminary arrangements to the tender which we want to publish as soon as at the beginning of 2018. The vehicles produced for Warsaw will arrive in two lots - 60 in 2019 and 70 in 2020”, adds Jan Kuźmiński, CEO of the Municipal Bus Company.

In the next few days, the Solaris Urbino 18 Electric of the fourth generation will provide services to passengers on route no. 175, whereas its target route will be, as soon as the charging station at Konwiktorska street is operational, line no. 503.

The Municipal Bus Company has had multiple years of experience in operating electric buses. The first battery vehicles were already tested five years ago, and in 2015 the first batch was ordered counting ten electric buses. Currently, the Solaris Urbino 12 Electric buses provide services on line no. 222 which runs predominantly along the Royal Route. Until last July the vehicles were charged only by means of a plug-in connector, which allowed for a travel distance of around 130-150 kilometres. At present, after putting into operation the street charging station at the Spartańska bus terminal, the vehicles can recharge their batteries by pantograph and thus cover much longer distances. Two years of operating the buses has shown, that they are very energy-efficient; the cost of fuel is multiple times lower in comparison to the cost of diesel engines and they work splendidly in winter.

In spring of 2018, another batch of electric buses will arrive in Warsaw. Those will be ten Solaris Urbino 12 electric buses of the fourth generation which will be put to use on the Royal Route lines.

“The decision on the purchase of more zero-emission buses and the involvement in the development of an ecological public transport system is a form of confirmation of Warsaw’s involvement in the pan-European and global trend present in public transport systems. I am pleased that Varsovians will have the opportunity to travel on an electric bus which is one of the most advanced solutions in e-mobility on the European market and which functions mainly on the basis of components which have been developed in Poland, such as the batteries made by Impact or the drive unit made by Medcom. Other places in Poland where similar vehicles may be found are Kraków and Jaworzno, whereas abroad they are present in Barcelona and Hamburg”, says Zbigniew Palenica, Vice-CEO of Solaris Bus & Coach S.A.

All electric buses supplied to Warsaw by Solaris are charged by means of charging stations produced by the Polish company Ekoenergetyka. These are devices with plug-in connectors located at the Woronicza bus terminal and a pantograph in Spartańska street.

The public transport system plays a key role in the capital’s transport system and it is the Varsovian’s favourite means of transport -  buses, trains, the underground and trams carry more than 1.1 bn passengers per year.

Solaris Bus & Coach has been setting trends in the area of e-mobility for years, among others by launching zero-emission vehicles on the domestic market. Since the company began its activity more than 2000 electrically driven vehicles have been manufactured. This path set out together with others will surely bring about changes that will enable to create a much better and user-friendly city infrastructure.